Manroland Web Produktionsgesellschaft (mrwp) emerged from Manroland Web Systems, a global web offset printing press manufacturer. Since 2017, the Augsburg-based company has been an independent member of the Possehl Group with more than 12,500 employees worldwide. The full-service supplier for mechanical components - from the design and manufacture of components to assembly, wiring, commissioning and quality testing - records around 250,000 production hours per year. Manroland-wp provides manufacturing services in the areas of mechanical production, sheet metal technology, surface technologies and assembly on 28,000 m².

Reliable adherence to deadlines is one of the core competencies of the manufacturing company. The prerequisite for this is reliable work preparation. Originally, the company worked with a software solution that mapped individual components in the milling area in tabular form. "We also relied a lot on comparative work plans and derived time calculations mainly from reference values," says Herbert Schalk, work planner in sales at mrwp, looking back. Experience values played a major role in work planning. "We wanted to create a uniform database for work preparation and costing so that we speak the same language in production and sales," adds Michael Leitenmaier, key user of the new solution, explaining the reasons for the search for more reliable software.

Strategically, the aim was to achieve growth in contract manufacturing and increase the traceability of the database. Integration into the existing SAP landscape was also key. The company also wanted to benefit from a solution that always operated at the latest maintenance standard and offered support services. Other requirements included low maintenance costs and an already integrated basic database for costing, in which the turning, milling, drilling, grinding and surface coating as well as cutting, welding and bending processes used in sheet metal technology should already be mapped.

Preconfigured process modules with cutting values and set of rules

As part of a market exploration process, discussions were held with customers who were already using solutions from the Erfurt-based work planning specialists HSi. The recommendation was convincing, so the company has been planning with the HSplan/IS SAP module and calculating with HSkalk/TK since 2019. The main reason for the decision was the adaptable technology base: the most common manufacturing processes, such as turning, milling, drilling, grinding, eroding, gear cutting, welding or assembly, are already mapped there as preconfigured process modules with all the necessary rules and industry-standard cutting values.

Herbert Schalk says: "Thanks to this foundation, we were able to offer calculations promptly and with good data quality with the new solution. He sees a major advantage in the quick and intuitive adaptability of the basic values and planning logic to the company-specific circumstances. "The introduction of the new solution went smoothly. We received key user training from HSi in advance. After that, the application was completely clear," says Leitenmaier. The required parameters were defined together with HSi and the tables and rules were fully adapted to the needs of Manroland-wp.

To date, mrwp has created around 3,000 calculations with HSi and calculated around 1,500 work plans in SAP. The handling of the solution is self-explanatory: In the SAP standard, the work planner describes the sequence of operations. HSplan/IS SAP then adds the work stage level below the operations. In the operation overview, the stage editor can be called up via the toolbar. There, the solution offers workstation-related calculation processes. As soon as a calculation process has been selected and the parameters entered, the rule logic is processed on the HSi server. The calculated values are saved in the work stages. After exiting the step editor, you return to the process overview.

The calculated planned times are automatically transferred to the SAP time fields. The same calculation processes can also be used outside SAP. HSkalk/TK is used to determine the most cost-effective production by outputting the cost price of all production parts up to the complete assembly in addition to the times. Unit costs can be calculated and set-up costs can be allocated or shown separately. The machine parameters stored in the technology base also enable a workstation-related comparison of unit and set-up costs in the preliminary calculation.

Planning and calculating to conserve resources

Since the introduction of the solution at Manroland-wp, the old-fashioned poring over tables and searching in folders to derive comparisons is a thing of the past. "We are now much faster in work planning and costing," says Herbert Schalk. He describes the traceability of the values as convenient, so that they can be coordinated transparently in production and sales. This is also an important basis for subsequently incorporating feedback from production. This means that the stored values always actually reflect what is feasible.

The sales department reports back that prices are now more realistic: "We used to set prices based on experience. That wasn't always an advantage," says Herbert Schalk. With HSi, the company benefits from a consistent and largely automated way of working, precise work planning and scheduled time determination as well as a standardized calculation basis. The subjective factor has been significantly reduced.

BOM-based planned time determination in assembly planning

At Manroland-wp, almost the entire range of mechanical services is now calculated with HSi. Almost 60 different workstations and around 2,500 operations per year are currently calculated using the planning solution. The company appreciates the software's ability to adapt to company-specific changes: "Our business requires more and more quotations for assemblies and complete systems. In future, we will also need the ability to generate quotations based on parts lists," says Herbert Schalk, looking to the future.

In addition, existing STEP and DXF files will soon be processed in HSi in order to be able to create quotations even faster in the individual parts business. "Our customers are significantly involved in the further development of our solutions," says Andreas Heß, Managing Director of HSi. For this reason, the implementation of BOM-based planning time determination for assembly processes at Manroland web production is already being planned.

Silvia Funke, freelance specialist journalist